Women in Modern India by Geraldine Forbes

THE FIRST LOOK AT THE BOOK


The name of the book is given as "The New Cambridge History of India, "Women in Modern India" by Geraldine Forbes. The special edition for South Asia bears the ISBN no. 0-521-61240-3 in its paper back edition. The personal copy has been bought from Lyall Book Store, Chaura Bazar Ludhiana, Punjab, India. On November 19, 2005 and first reading completed by November 23, 2005


The Cambridge Publication has called it "a sympathetic and comprehensive study of Indian women".


According to Indian Review of Books as given at the back of the book, "Women in Modern India will be required reading from now on for those wishing to understand the history of Indian women … . it is well researched, addresses a variety of debates, is clearly written, and above all, is scrupulously fair."


It can be said in the endorsement of the view of the Indian Review of Books, that the book is definitely clearly written and addressed a variety of debates. However, it is difficult to say that it is comprehensive.


On the web site of Cambridge,
According to Joan P. Mencher, Journal of Developing Areas, "This volume on women in modern India is extremely well researched and well thought out."


In reference to this statement of Joan P. Mencher, it can be said that in the Bibliography Essay and also contents of the book itself suggest that the author somewhere feels that the area of study is restricted by freshness of the issue. The chapterization is definitely has novelty in its framing.


At the same place it is given with reference to Sumathi Ramaswamy, the Historian that "Forbes's volume is at once a celebration and an exhortation. It is a celebration both of feminist scholarship on India and of women's achievements there under the most contraining circumstances of colonial, nationlist, and postcolonial patriarchies. It is also an exhortation to discover and preserve more women's records, to write more women's histories, and `to include gender in [all our] conceptual frameworks".


The views of Sumathi Ramaswamy deserves full endorsement and tells the actual position of the book. In a way it can be repeated that it is a celebration both of feminist scholarship on India and of women's achievements there under the most contraining circumstances of colonial, nationlist, and postcolonial patriarchies. And Secondly it lays out a way for the need "to discover and preserve more women's records, to write more women's histories, and `to include gender in [all our] conceptual frameworks". It is in this light that Joan’s views remain short of telling what actually the book is.


Similarly, the publisher has referred to the views of Brenda Cossman, SIGNS. It is stated by Brenda that "Forbes's Women in Modern India is an ambitious survey that narrates the many stories of women involved in the social reform, nationalist, and post-Independence women's rights movements."


Well the view of Brenda is not that effective. It is not a story of many women involved in different historic processes and mechanisms. It is on the other hand more than that. They are not mere stories about women in the 19th and 20th century during pre and post independence period. Forbes has been able to do more than that. The stories were merely the medium but actually it is about history of women in contrast to traditional form of history of men which is generally considered as the history of the period. Now, here, it is not said that there should be different histories like one for the women and other for the men. It has tried to answer the gap in the narration of history.


Finally it has following contents:
Introduction;
l. Reform in the nineteenth century: efforts to modernize women’s roles;
2. Education for women;
3. The emergence of women’s organizations;
4. The movement for women’s rights;
5. Women in the nationalist movement;
6. Women’s work in colonial India;
7. A time of transition;
8. Women in independent India;
Bibliographic essay.

The home page of Professor Geraldine Forbes is at http://www.oswego.edu/~forbes/ as identified on Tuesday, December 06, 2005 which stands updated on August 29, 2005.

Deferment Notice and Redefining the Aim

I am deferring the review of the book, "Akalis, A Short History" by J. S. Garewal.


I am constraint to do it because of non-academic situation in the college where I teach. I am forced to return the book and those books which were required to verify the contents in the book in order to evaluate the book.


I have now redefined the aim of this blog. I will take up only those books which I will personally buy or receive as a complimentary copy. Now I will take each book individually. Secondly, I buy such books which help me to prepare my notes for teaching purpose and fulfill the demands of the syllabus which I will teach. Therefore, the range of the issues and topics will be limited by it. In case, I find such topic, which has relevance to the subject of history but not concerned with my teaching activity, then I will compare and evaluate with such books and information that is available online. I am not against libraries but this is what I am envisaging for coming days. I understand that it will limit my sphere and leave lot many sources out of preview but it will be like that.


My next book is "Women in Modern India" by Geraldine Forbes published under the project of The New Cambridge History of India. First of all, for me, it is the second book on the same topic which I have read till this day. Earlier, the reading on this topic was done from other books which had information on this topic but there the topic was merely a part of some other project.


My earlier book on this topic was written by Manmohan Kaur, titled, "Role of Women in Freedom Struggle". According to Geraldine Forbes, the contents are not reliable. I have read this book nearly five years back. I had prepared notes on it. As far I remember Manmohan Kaur had written her preface that the work remained short of right evaluation because some of the papers were not accessible in archives. There was some kind of restriction about which she had mentioned. Secondly, the whole layout was in form of small biographies. However, it was there, that I had learned about some of ‘women in history’ for the first time. However, I will not touch that book here. I will only concentrate on the contents of the book of Ms. Forbes and look out for the various concepts, constructs and reference frame used by the author to evaluate the Women in Modern India. She had given an elaborate Bibliographic essay, which will be kept in mind while saying and commenting on the book. Finally I will make notes and give it here. I will also post the copy of notes on M. A. History blog.


I am facing the technical problem concerning this blog which I have encountered in case of my General studies blog. Well, it can be tackled but I create unnecessary hurdle. The template of the blog gets effected if you make many changes to it. Your postings get pushed down. The overall appearance of the blog is disturbed. It creates some dissatisfaction. Anyhow, I feel, I will be able to correct in case of this blog. My other blog sumir sharma is intact where I have picked the same design. I hope to correct it also.